Record-breaking Ronald Acuña Jr. Superfractor Sold for $430,000

According to Ken Goldin at Goldin Auctions via his personal Instagram, the all-time sales record for a Ronald Acuña Jr. baseball card has been sold via private sale, totalling $430,000 USD. The 2017 Bowman Autographed Superfractor is his “Bowman 1st” card and is limited to just 1/1, meaning only one exists in the world from that set and is considered the rarest variation from that release.

Ronald Acuña Jr. has been one of the most impressive baseball players on the planet since making his MLB debut back in 2018.

Signed by the Atlanta Braves as an international free agent back in 2014, the Venezuelan product has already amassed an impressive resume through just six seasons, earning the NL Rookie of the Year Award, three Silver Slugger Awards (outfield), and four All-Star Awards while being in line to take home an MVP for this season.

Through six seasons, Acuña Jr. owns a .918 OPS with 161 home runs and a 26.7 fWAR ranks 13th since 2018, which is impressive considering he missed almost half of the 2021 season and a portion of the 2022 campaign.

Acuña Jr. baseball card fetches $430,000 at auction

Baseball cards have been an interesting topic over recent years, as fans of the game can collect their favorite players while some can choose to try and profit from buying, grading, and selling different variations of baseball cards.

The Acuña Jr. card that was recently sold was rated a “9” by PSA, a leading grading company in the trading card industry and likely would have fetched considerably more if it was graded a “10”, although that grade can be hard to achieve with Superfractors.

There have always been vintage cards, dating back to the famous T206 Honus Wagner with only 50-200 in existence after Wagner asked the American Tobacco Company to stop producing the card. Another famous vintage card is the 1952 Mickey Mantle, which fetched $12.6 million at auction last year with a “5” grade.

Acuña Jr. is not the only modern-day baseball player to have one of their baseball cards go for lots of money, as Mike Trout’s Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Superfractor autograph from 2009 (grade 9) sold for just under $3.9 million at Goldin Auctions back in 2020.

Trout isn’t the only player to see his Superfractor go for a high value, as Shohei Ohtani’s 2018 Bowman Chrome Superfractor (grade 9) went for $184,000 back in 2018, which seems like a low value given the Japanese star’s emergence as a top player in the world today.

2009 Bowman Chrome Mike Trout Superfractor Sells for $3.84 Million, Most Ever for Baseball Card https://t.co/F4at4eCYrt pic.twitter.com/KJ2MrRk9r7

— Ryan Cracknell 🍂 (@tradercracks) August 23, 2020

While the Superfractor is the rarest of the variations, other variations of top players can also fetch some serious cash, as Trout’s Red Refractor from the same release (#/5) went for just over $1 million at Goldin Auctions back in 2020 as well. These high values also extend to modern cards that are not autographed as well, with Corbin Carroll’s 2023 Topps Chrome Superfractor (grade 9) fetching $43,000 USD on eBay back in August.

For collectors and those trying to make a little money flipping cards, a little luck sometimes goes a long way in this hobby, as anybody can open a pack of cards and hit something impressive, or some get lucky and find their grandfather’s old stash of baseball cards can strike it rich as well.

There are also multiple selling platforms and ways to interact on social media and even in person to talk, trade, and sell baseball cards and memorabilia, with the National Sports Collectors Convention and numerous card shows around the country drawing hundreds of thousands of fans and business people together.

This likely won’t be the last time this Acuña Jr. card gets sold over time, as the individual who sold the Trout Superfractor originally bought the card for roughly $400,000 and made almost 10x all within a few years. Considering the baseball card industry is ever-changing with the likes of Fanatics taking over Topps and the battles for sports licensing going on between the different companies, fans of all different eras of the game can still revel in baseball cards.